AWARDS
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Rightpoint

Compassion Crew is Rightpoint’s corporate citizenship program. Last
year, more than 80 Compassion Crew volunteers worked nearly 650 hours
on charitable projects, including its first project with EPIC, an organization that gives creative people the chance to use their talents for social
good. Through EPIC, Rightpoint was paired with Reading is Fundamental
(RIF) Chicago, reaches 48,000 children annually, serves 94 schools and
has distributed more than 4,000,000 new books since its establishment.

In order to continue providingopportunities for every child tolearn and love reading, RIF Chi-cago needed to refresh its brandand overhaul its online donation platformto maximize fundraising potential. RIFChicago’s requirement was a natural fitwith Rightpoint’s comprehensive digital/design capabilities, says Brad Schneider,co-founder of the firm.

Typically, EPIC channels creative talentfor a cause, but Schneider says Rightpointwanted to take that commitment forwardby taking the extra step of building out areally great user experience and a greatbrand and developing it. “We wanted tochannel the passions of our developers onthe back end of all the creative work thatwe did to actually build it out, make it realand make it live online.”Ross Freedman, co-founder of Right-point says the firm is a collection of mak-ers. “They have a real entrepreneurial spirit.We foster this culture where people cantake that white space opportunity, run withit and make something big happen. Frankly,that’s one of the reasons Brad and I startedthe company. It’s one of the things thatRightpoint was challenged to create arobust, interactive and scalable websitethat could be sustained by RIF’s smallstaff, says Sona Allen who spearheadedthe project internally at Rightpoint.

“I thought it was an awesome opportu-nity for us to form a great partnership withRIF. It’s really the perfect way for us to beable to channel our passions and talents togive back to organizations in need,” Allensays. “Because of the type of people wehave here at Rightpoint, I knew getting atalented team together would not be dif-ficult at all—and it wasn’t.”Rightpoint formed a team of design-ers, developers, writers, and strategists toredesign the current website focusing oninformation architecture, user experience,visual design and development. “We hadso much support from so many talentedpeople right from the start. The team wasencouraging, uplifting and beyond organ-ized. They clearly understood our goals,”says Mary Case, RIF Chicago Director ofDevelopment and Communication.

The process began with a content evaluation of the current website followed by
a series of brainstorming sessions and
interviews with RIF program teachers. The
team designed a responsive, re-branded
website that could capture donations and
educate donors about RIF Chicago programs and their local impact. Rightpoint
also created content and activities designed
to engage and encourage a new generation
of children who love to read, Allen says.

Since launching, RIF Chicago has seen
a 200 percent increase in site requests for
donor information. Visitors have conveyed
extremely positive feedback about the site’s
appearance and navigation ease, Allen says.